Must Read Links for Web Designers and Developers – Volume 5

by on March 4th, 2011 0 comments

Welcome to our 5th edition of must read links for web designers and developers. We have some really great links today that will really help you learn and improve in the work you do on the web. Please take some time from your busy day and enjoy them.

CSS

Simple CSS3 framework for creating GitHub style button links

The Pros And Cons Of CSS Resets

CSS3 Tools For Your Next Web Development

CSS powered ribbons the clean way — CSS Wizardry—CSS, Web Standards, Typography, and Grids

A Hand-Coded Designer CSS UI Kit

How to Write Cross Browser @font-face Syntax

Create a Dark Navigation Menu Design with CSS

Cross-browser CSS gradient buttons

Fonts

50 Fonts To Give Your Design Grunge Look

30 of the Best Font Foundries

Ultimate Web Font Resource Roundup: 50 Awesome Sites

10 Excellent Free Comic Book Fonts

9 Free Beautiful Thin Fonts for your Next Design

10 Great Google Font Combinations You Can Copy

Massive List of Cool Fonts for Designers

jQuery

20 (More) Fresh jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Plugins and Tutorials Worth a Look

55 jQuery Navigation and Menu Plugins

Free, Simple and Advanced jQuery Templates

Supersized 3.1 jQuery Plugin – Fullscreen Background Slideshow with Flickr Support

44 Awesome jQuery Tutorials For Web Developers

Advanced web templates with layout manager

Photoshop

Best Free PSD Website Templates Of February 2011

16 Excellent Adobe Photoshop Tutorials Using 3D Tools

Design a Clean Corporate Website Layout

Photoshop CS5 Shortcuts for Professionals

50+ Best And Really Useful Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

400+ Free Clouds Photoshop Brushes: Download All You Can

Design A Pixel Perfect Mail Icon

Web Design & Development

10 Amazing Productivity Tools for Web Designers

5 Tools to Make a Web Designer’s Life a Little Easier

Huge collection of free Icons Download

101 Apps for Your Web App Startup Toolbox

7 Form Frameworks To Help Manage Your Forms Easily

8 Best HTML5 Ebooks Every Web Designer Should Learn

10 Useful HTML5 Website Templates For Free Download

HTML5 Tutorials and Techniques That Will Keep You Busy

Useful Collection of Resources Powered by Tumblr for Designers and Developers

14 Best Sites For Beginners To Learn JavaScript Language

WordPress

12 tutorials to build your own WordPress theme option page

WordPress SEO Plugin That Will Be A De Facto Standard

WordPress Plugin: User Submitted Posts

Eleana – Free Stylish WordPress Theme

The Best WordPress Themes for Churches and Non-Profit Organizations

Using WordPress Custom Template to Create Layout with Different Sidebar

Tips to Follow in Speed and Maintenance of WordPress

Turn Your WordPress Blog into Anything: 11 Unconventional Uses for WordPress

Basics of WordPress Theme Design

That is it for this week. We will be back in a couple of weeks with our next installment. As always, please feel free to share your questions, comments, and recommendations.

Ultimate HTML5 Cheatsheat [Infographic]

by on February 25th, 2011 24 comments

For this week’s infograpic we decided to create something you can utilize in your day-to-day web design and development tasks. We are very pleased to present to you The Ultimate HTML5 Cheatsheet. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

Like it? Add this infographic to your blog or share it with friends!

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11 Tips for Freelancers to get Paid on Time

by on February 24th, 2011 0 comments

If you are a designer or a freelancer, offering your services online, there is little chance that you would meet any of your clients face-to-face: in fact, most of them could be living in another country or a different continent and your only means of reaching them is by email, fax, or telephone. Even though making a living online has its many advantages, quite often being paid on time for the services that you offer could prove challenging. Here are a few simple steps that you could take in order to ensure that you are paid what you are owed:

1. When dealing with a new client, run a quick background check – this is highly recommended if you are undertaking a large project or if you know little or nothing about your new client. People and companies with impeccable record are likely to pay you on time, as long as you deliver what you promise. Ensure that you know the person, responsible for your payment, and have his or her email address and telephone number.

2. Taking a downpayment is a common practice and most designers and freelancers would require at least a minimal deposit before they commence working on the project. If the client is uncomfortable sending you a direct advance payment, you could both agree to use an escrow service, which quite a few freelance websites offer.

3. State your terms clearly before starting the work and have your terms in writing, if possible. This will help you avoid any future misunderstandings and ensure that both parties are satisfied with the terms and conditions of the contract.

4. If you are a web developer or designer, you should develop and keep the projects on your server and transfer the files to your client only after receiving payment in full. You can easily give your clients access to a password-protected section of your website, where they could see the finished project before sending payment.

5. Set milestone (scheduled) payments – you could agree on receiving payments from your clients after a major step of the project is completed. This is beneficial for both parties since the customer pays only for work done and you greatly minimize the risk of losing larger amounts of money.

6. Encourage your clients to pay early by offering a discount – if you offer a few percents discount for early payment, it is likely that most clients will take advantage of your offer and you will not have to worry about late payments.

7. Issue invoices on time – when working with individuals, you are rarely asked for invoices, but all companies need them. Find out what type of invoice your client requires and make sure to send it on time – the majority of the firms send payments only at set times of the week or the month and if you delay the invoice, you might have to wait for the next ‘payday’ to come.

8. Be proactive – send a polite reminder a few days before the payment is due. If your client is late, you should send a reminder every few days, while still keeping a friendly tone – your client might be away on holiday or have troubles raising the funds, and proper and polite communication is your best chance of getting paid.

9. Take the time to send a ‘thank you’ email or letter to a client that pays on time – being courteous will help you get repeat orders and build long-term and profitable business relationships.

10. If the payment is long overdue, keep trying to get in touch with your client frequently and insist in a very polite manner that you are paid. Again, you should give your customers an adequate time to respond since they could be dealing with all sorts of personal, family, or financial crisis. If raising the funds is the reason for the delay, try working out an installment plan.

11. Legal action is your last resort, but is often not worth it, especially if the amount is small or your client lives overseas. You could always try to find a mediator that could help you work with the other party and pressure them to make good on their promises.

When trading or offering your services online, the golden rule is to never risk more than you can afford to lose – if you are uncomfortable with the payment agreement that a prospective client insists on, then walk away from the deal. Communication is very important and you could always get together on the phone or use an instant messenger in order to find a common ground; even when a customer is late with his or her payment, do not assume the worst and be polite and friendly when conversing with them. If you happen to lose a small amount of money, it is often in your best interest to move on rather than spend time and energy cashing a few dollars.

Must Read Links for Web Designers and Developers – Volume 4

by on February 18th, 2011 0 comments

Volume 4 of our must read links brings us many links for CSS, Photoshop, WordPress, and much more. Take some time and check them out, we are sure you will not be disappointed.

CSS

50 Useful CSS3 Tutorials

The No-Pressure Introduction to CSS3

CSS3 Drop Shadow

The Bright (Near) Future of CSS

The CSS3 Matrix Construction Set

50+ Awesome CSS3 Techniques for Better Designs

10 Useful CSS3 Tools for Your Next Web Development

Ultimate Collection of CSS3 Tools For Your Next Web Development

25 Fresh and Professional CSS and HTML Templates

Fonts

Massive List of Cool Fonts For Designers

How to Safely Match Web Design and Typography

Top 50 Free Bold Fonts

jQuery

46 Excellent jQuery Tutorials For Web Developers

25 Free jQuery Photo Gallery / Albums with Tutorials

20 Awesome jQuery Lightbox Plugins

Photoshop

30 Photoshop Tutorial Blogs Worth Reading

20 Of The Newest Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

Create a Fantastic Landing Page for Your Next Product Using Photoshop

Tabbed Navigation (PSD) Freebie

44 Free Wing Photoshop Brush Sets

100+ Fresh and Excellent Photoshop Tutorials

WordPress blog theme PSD template

Web Design & Development

Clean Up Malicious Links with HTAccess

100 Must Read Articles For Web Designers And Developers In 2011

50 Air Apps and Browser Addons for Web Designers and Developers

Effective Color Palette and Color Scheme Generators

Ultimate guide to table UI patterns

5 Essential Books to Become a Better Web Designer

Checklist for Better Web Graphics

30 Awesome PHP Tutorials

20+ HTML5 Templates

WordPress

Enhancing WordPress Custom Fields with Search Filtering

Easily display post titles with a custom length

How to Manage AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL in WordPress

Settings API Explained

Better Robots.txt Rules for WordPress

Graphite: A Free WordPress Theme

30 Gorgeous WordPress and Tumblr Themes

Thanks for reading. Please let us know in the comments which are your favorites.

27 Great CSS Frameworks You Must Check Out

by on February 14th, 2011 11 comments

If you are a busy web designer or developer, using a CSS framework could speed up your work dramatically and make your task far easier. The CSS frameworks facilitate rapid development, could be used as a foundation in many design projects, and take care of some of most repetitive tasks. Here is a comprehensive list of CSS frameworks, which will give you a head start in your design work – some of them are well known and well documented, while others are used by few, but have their strong points and unique features:

1. 960gs
A clean and extensible CSS framework that is HTML5 ready and well documented. It is relatively easy to use, comes with adjustable margins, and 12, 16, and 24 column layouts.


2. YUI 2: Grids CSS
A customizable and flexible CSS framework, which comes with four page widths (750px, 950px, 974px, and fluid-width), and more than 1000 layout options. It offers A-grade browser support, self-clearing footer, source-order independent columns, and is easy to use and well documented.

3. Blueprint
Comes with form styles, print styles, plug-ins, typographic baseline, and easy to customize grid. It also has style sheet for printing and browser CSS reset.

4. BlueTrip
Originally developed by combining the best features of other popular CSS frameworks, has clean form styles, cool buttons, print stylesheet, 24-column grid, and adequate typography styles.

5. Elastic CSS
Allows for unlimited nesting, fixed width or elastic columns, any number of columns, column overloading, full height blocks, and same height columns. It is simple and compatible with most of the popular web browsers.

6. Easy
This one has many great features such as predefined and structure CSS styles for print and screen, HTML content blocks, solid file organization, and interactive functions.

7. EZ-CSS
A cross-browser, very small, and flexible CSS framework that allows users to create multiple columns with any width.

8. Tripoli
A framework that is cross-browser compatible, simple, and easy to use and install. It allows the designers to reset and rebuild the browser defaults, disable deprecated HTML tags, and build neat HTML code.

9. CleverCSS
An indentation based markup language, which could be used to build structured style sheets.

10. SenCSS
This one does not come with preset grids, but includes fonts, margins, paddings, baseline, list, headers, and blockquotes.

11. Emastic
A lightweight CSS framework, which offers fluid or fixed columns, flexible page width, and grid topography.

12. Typogridphy
Based on the 960-grid system and by utilizing the ‘vertical rhythm’ typographical method allows the users to create versatile layouts.


13. Less Framework 3
An excellent framework, which permits creating new layouts by using old layouts and inline media queries, where the new layouts inherit the styles from the old ones.

14. Elements
A free, lightweight, easy to use, and comes with number of preset classes, mass reset, and included lightbox.

15. Boilerplate
A light framework, which comes with no grids component, but provides all essentials CSS elements.

16. Malo
A super small, very flexible, easy to use, and allows for personalized page width.

17. The 1kb CSS Grid
Loosely based on the 960 grid system and is very simple and lightweight. It has 12 columns spread out over 960 pixels in its basic configuration.


18. Fluid Grid System
A free, open source, flexible, and accessible framework. Its main strength is the fact that it facilitates designs, which looks great on large and small screens.

19. Content with Style
Offers layouts in six groups, with six common building blocks: main content, sub content, header, footer, main nav, and local nav.

20. WYMstyle
Comes with tested and reliable CSS modules and facilitates easy development, modularity, and easy maintenance.

21. The Golden Grid
The Golden Grid is lightweight (less than 1kg when compressed), easy to learn, and uses 6/12 grid system and 970 pixels for the main width.

22. Yet Another Multicolumn Layout (YAML)
Robust, slim, and flexible, and comes with design patterns for micro formats, forms, and typography.

23. Compass
Relies on the CSS-generating language SASS and is a set of applications that help designers maintain their CSS.


24. Schema Web Design Framework
Includes set of CSS and HTML settings that allow users to build easily and quickly almost any design.

25. Sparkl

Comes with grid layout, advanced layout, tabs, vertical tabs, typography, tables, images, code, IE only, and links modules. It offers one, two, or three column layouts, folder structure, commented code, and instant tabbed navigation.

26. The jQuery UI CSS Framework
A CSS framework, which makes building jQuery widgets easy. It comes with many framework classes such as layout helpers, interaction states, widget containers, interaction cues, icons, overlays, and shadows.

27. 52framework
Offers CSS reset, grid system, box shadow, text shadow, rounded corners, and HTML5 compatibility.


So what do you prefer? One of these frameworks, a different solution, or one you have created yourself? Please share with us in the comments.

A Comprehensive History of Computers [Infographic]

by on February 11th, 2011 22 comments

Lets sit back and think about what life was like before computers were everywhere. You actually had to send letters via the postal service, go to stores to buy things, and actually visit Uncle Larry at his house instead of at the prison where he is serving time for a hard drive full of illegal images. Any way, even though a mostly computerless world wasn’t that long ago it really is hard to explain to some of the younger generation what a pain it really was. So in honor of the great technology we use everyday I present to you ‘Computers – A Chronological Timeline’. Enjoy!

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Top 25 Royalty Free Stock Photo Sites

by on February 10th, 2011 5 comments

If you are webmaster looking to add great images to your site, a web designer in need of photos, or a video editor in need of artwork, then knowing the top royalty free stock photo sites could come in handy. Royalty free images are either sold commercially or given away free of charge. If the user has to pay it is typically only once and the images can be used multiple times and in different applications and projects. It is important to read the image licenses carefully since they could carry certain restrictions, however,  in most instances once you purchase a royalty free image you can use it on more than one website, include it in your designs, or incorporate it in your promotional and sales videos.

These are the top 25 royalty free stock photo sites:

  1. Dreamstime has a large and searchable collection of stock photos and images, which sell from as little as 20 cents per item. Signing up is free and the images come with either regular or extended license.
  2. Big Photo has a decent collection of low-resolution photos, which are contributed to the site by amateur photographers. The images come with liberal license, which requires linking back to the site or referring to the site if they are to be used on TV.
  3. Photo Rack has, at the time of this writing, close to 30 000 images, which are conveniently divided into a few categories such as “life style,” “travel,” “people,” “cooking,” “animals,” “sports,” “business,” etc. and the image database is searchable as well.
  4. Stock.XCHNG is one of the biggest and best-known stock image websites, with more than 390 000 photos, contributed by more than 30 000 photographers. The image license is quite liberal and the images are free, however, designers that wish to include the photos in their work are encouraged to contact the photographers and ask for permission.
  5. iStockphoto is another site, which has a large database of stock photography, video clips, vector illustrations, audio tracks, and flash media files. All items are purchased with credits, which credits could be bought by choosing one of the subscription plans or only when needed.
  6. Corbis sells images under number of licenses, including royalty free. All items are conveniently split into various categories and theme CDs are available as well.
  7. ImageBase offers free for use images and permits commercial use as well.
  8. Fotolia sells images, vector illustrations, and videos and allows the site’s users to either sign up for one of the subscription plans or purchase credits once off. With more than twelve million items in six different resolutions, the site has one of the most extensive collections on the Net.
  9. FreeBG is the place to visit if you are searching for background images. All of them are free, divided into many categories, and even come with free preview, which should give you an idea on how the background will look on your website.
  10. MorgueFile despite its morbid name offers royalty free images, stored in eleven different categories. The website offers paid premium accounts and VIP services as well.
  11. Gettyimages is another of the large websites, which carries photos, vectors, and illustrations, categorized in collections and galleries.
  12. Free Foto carries more than 130 000 images in 180 sections and more than 3 500 categories. The images are free for commercial and non-commercial use as long as link back and attribution is provided.
  13. FreeStockPhotos has been around for more than ten ears and offers great number of free images (all images are watermarked and the watermark should be retained).
  14. Public Domain Photos contains approximately 5 000 public domain photos, which you could use in your designs, websites, or videos.
  15. Freedigitalphotos carries thousands of images in fifteen different categories. The license requires acknowledgement or paying for the image, and the prices start from as little as three dollars per item.
  16. Photos is one of the largest royalty-free stock photo and illustration websites, with more than 2.6 million items, sold separately or in image packs. Single images are sold from as little as $1.99, while subscription plans allow the same images to be purchased for $0.19.
  17. Image After offers free images and textures, which could be used in personal, non-commercial, and commercial projects.
  18. Jupiter Images has an extensive database of images (royalty free and rights-managed), as well as CD collections.
  19. Photocase is a stock photography website, which sells individual images or packs of credits. The users are presented with number of options such as advanced search, search modifiers, sort function, and “similar photos” option, which could help them find easily the image that they are after.
  20. Matton Images offers high-resolution photos, split into categories, and one, three, six, and twelve-month subscription plans.
  21. Free Pixels has more than 4 000 images, categorized in seven categories and many subcategories. They are free to use in commercial and non-commercial projects under the limitations of the website’s license.
  22. Mooch Travel Photography has an excellent collection of high-resolution travel photos from almost every country in the World. The price of each image is calculated, according to the intended use and can be computed with the help of a drop-down menu.
  23. Freeimages carries approximately 6 000 images in 76 categories, which images are free for use on websites and printed materials, as long as credit is given to the website.
  24. NationsIllustrated is a site with more than 7 500 images, which are free for lawful and non-commercial use.
  25. OpenPhoto offers images in 27 different categories, where the license terms are listed next to each image and most of them allow the users to copy, distribute, and adapt the work.

We hope you find this list of royalty free stock photo sites useful. If you have a favorite please share it in the comments section.

Must Read Links for Web Designers and Developers – Volume 3

by on February 4th, 2011 0 comments

The 3rd installment of our ‘Must Read Links for Web Designers and Developers’ is our biggest and best yet with over 80 awesome links to check out. I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold February weekend.

CSS

CSS Reset.com – CSS Resets and Free CSS Tutorials & Resources

29 Free CSS Frameworks and Tools for Web Developers

30+Useful Example CSS3 Style (Really Useful CSS)

CSS Pitfalls for Web Designers to Avoid

45 Free CSS and XHTML Web Layout Templates

250+ Resources to Help You Become a CSS Expert

Should You Reset Your CSS?

CSS formatting · dropshado.ws

Introduction to CSS Escape Sequences

21 Must See CSS Sprites Tutorials

CSS Quick Tip: CSS Arrows and Shapes Without Markup

The CSS Position Property

CSS-101: a very useful resource for learning CSS

Multi-column text using CSS3

45+ Effective Tutorials for CSS Menus & Navigation

Fonts

Cool font pairings with FontFuse

45 Fresh and Stunning Free Fonts To Enhance Your Designs

Top 13 Webfonts for Headline Use

Top 50 Best Free Fonts

20 Completely Free Logo Fonts

20 Elegant Bold Script Fonts

Mastering Font Combinations

“What Font Should I Use?”: Five Principles for Choosing and Using Typefaces

Icons and Graphics

40 Vector Icons

NEW Sets of Free High Quality Icons for Bloggers and Designers

19 Free Web UI Element Kits and Stencils

Industrial Folder Style Icon

Free Icon Set for Web Developers: Coded

Retina Display Icon Set

15 Free Sites to Download Vector Graphics

jQuery

65 jQuery Tutorials To Help You Customize Your Site

14 Really Useful jQuery Plugin for Create Web Apps

Overlay Effect Menu with jQuery

19 Amazing Social Jquery Plugins and Tutorials

15 jQuery Tutorials For More Interactive Navigation

22 Brilliant and Advanced jQuery Effects to WOW Your Visitors

16 Useful jQuery Plugins & Tutorials to Integrate Twitter into Website/Blog

20+ Awesome jQuery Powered Web Site Navigation Scripts

26 Useful jQuery Navigation Menu Tutorials

Best jQuery Tooltip Plugins

Photoshop

80 Ultimate Collection of High Quality Free PSD Files

150+ Free and Time-Saving Photoshop Actions for Photo Retouching (Tutorial Included)

5 Crucial Photoshop Tools For All Photographers

30 Blog Design Photoshop Tutorials

15 First-rate Photoshop Brush Sites You Should Know

1000+ Free Web 2.0 Photoshop Gradients in 25 Sets

Learn How To Create A Detailed Portfolio Layout In Photoshop

10 Of The finest Free Web design PSD Templates

Cafe & restaurant website PSD template

10 Fresh And Best Free PSD Website Templates

The Ultimate Background Removal Guide with PhotoShop

How To Give Your Photos a Vintage Polaroid Effect

Create A Detailed Solid Dark Layout In Photoshop

30 Fresh Web Design Tutorials

Radar Icon in Photoshop

Make a Simple and Modern Web UI Button in Photoshop

SEO

Top 10 Hand Picked SEO Blogs to Improve Your SEO Knowledge

SEO tips for web designers – 5 part series

Web Design / Development

All The Cheat Sheets That A Web Developer Needs

30 Sites That Offer Free Website Templates and Free Flash Templates

Beginner’s Study Guide to HTML5 Microformats

8 Tools For Easily Creating a Mobile Version of Your Website

20 Free Web Apps for Freelancer Web Designers

30 Free High Resolution Images for Commercial Use from Flickr

txt2re: regular expression generator, a headache relief for programmers

8 useful sites for web developers

HTML & CSS Editing Apps For Windows Designers

60 Questions to Consider When Designing a Website

50 Free Tools and Apps for Web Designers and Developers

The Complete Guide to Starting a Graphic and Web Design Business From Home

15 Helpful Advices for Beginners to Become a Better Designer

10 Excellent Applications for Mobile Website Testing

Time-Saving and Educational Resources for Web Designers

40+Free Professional CMS

51 Web Apps for Web Designers and Developers

10 Ideas for Creating Innovative and Unique Web Designs

WordPress

5 Quick Tips for Using WordPress

How WordPress Can Help You Rank in GOOGLE

The anatomy of a WordPress theme

WordPress Simpler Login URL

How to Create WordPress Shortcodes

How To Change WordPress Login Logo

The Best Premium-Like Free WordPress Themes Of 2010

50 Questions That Designers Need to Ask Their Clients

by on February 3rd, 2011 2 comments

If you are a web designer and developer, one of the most important aspects of your job is to find out what the client needs and wants. In the case of very small projects, a quick phone call or a few exchanged emails is all that you might need, but if you have been awarded a complex and rather large project, you need to find out as much as possible about the project’s details. Keep in mind that great many of your clients might not be as computer or Internet savvy as you are and might have completely wrong idea of what, when, and how things are happening – it is in your best interest to figure out all the important details in advance in order to avoid cancelled projects, missed deadlines, and dissatisfied customers.

This is a comprehensive list of 50 questions, which every designer needs to ask his or her clients before developing a new website:

1. What is your company or organization’s core business?

2. What is the size of your organization or company?

3. Who are your clients and business partners?

4. What message do you want to convey with your website?

5. What image do you want to project for your company?

6. Who are your competitors?

7. What makes your company or organization stand out?

8. What is the main purpose of the website?

9. What websites do you like and what websites do you dislike?

10. Do you have a registered domain?

11. Do you have a hosting company?

12. Do you have any other websites?

13. What features do you want to include in your website?

14. Who in your company is in charge of the project?

15. What is your contact phone number, email, or instant messenger?

16. Will anyone else be editing the website as well?

17. Are there any colors that you want included in the design?

18. Do you have a company logo, which you want featured on the site?

19. Do you want to be able to add additional content on your own?

20. Do you need a web form, which visitors could use to contact you?

21. Is quality or speed more important to you?

22. How often would you like to be updated on my progress?

23. Do you intend to have a password-protected area of the website?

24. Do you have any images or video files, which you want featured on the website?

25. Do you have written text that you want included on the website?

26. Will you need any articles or publications?

27. What are your preferences of the website’s layout and navigation?

28. Will you need any custom artwork or drawings?

29. Do you have any preferences related to the typography?

30. What screen resolution do you want the site built for?

31. Will you be selling products or services online?

32. Are there any special accessibility features that you need?

33. Have you decided on the main categories and areas of the site?

34. Would you like your site’s content to be searchable?

35. Would you like the website to be optimized for mobile devices?

36. Do you need any computer programming for the site’s functionality?

37. Will you require any administration tools and training?

38. Would you like a custom 404 page?

39. Would you require web site maintenance?

40. Will you need on- and off-site search engine optimization?

41. Will you need additional web site marketing?

42. Will you need any offline promotion?

43. Do you need analytical and report tools installed?

44. Are there any websites that you would like to link to?

45. How much are you willing to spend on the project?

46. How and when are you going to make the payments?

47. What is the deadline for the project?

48. Would you need additional design services?

49. May I include your website in my portfolio?

50. May I have a footer link to my own website?

You can break down all these questions into different groups, print them out, and email or fax them to your client as soon as you have been awarded the project. It will not only help you understand your customer’s needs better, but will also assure them that you run professional and reliable business.

Everything you need to know about your CPU

by on February 1st, 2011 0 comments

One of the most important parts of a computer is the central processing unit or CPU. This is the component that makes all computations possible, and performs four basic logical operations that complete the fetch-decode-execute cycle of a computer. Regardless of its brand or type every new CPU contains millions of transistors, which are its building blocks that work by amplifying or switching an electronic signal. Each transistor has a base, emitter, and collector and putting a few transistors together forms a logic gate, gates are used to create binary code and give the CPUs their processing powers. The transistor-based processors are far superior to their predecessors since they operate at much higher speed, offer superb reliability, and lower power consumption.

Each modern CPU contains a number of important elements, which are listed below, along with a short description:

Execution Core(s)

Refers to the number of execution cores that are found in a single chip. The most sophisticated CPUs have eight execution cores, which allow them to handle far more applications.

Data Bus

A subsystem that allows information to be transferred within the CPU and from the CPU to other components in the computer – the higher the speed of the bus, the faster the data will be transferred.

Address Bus

A set of lines that determines where in the main memory will the data be transferred and the number of lines determines the amount of memory that can be accessed directly.

Math Co-processor

A computer chip that performs some of the mathematical computations (typically floating-point functions) and thus frees the main processor. While in the past the co-processor was a separate physical processor in the computers today it is typically built into the CPU.

Instruction sets / Microcode

Translates the machine instructions into circuit-level operations and what makes the control logic of the computers possible.

Multimedia extensions (or MMX)

Additional set of instructions that come built-in into an Intel Pentium chip and improve performance.

Registers

The CPUs own memory locations that are accessed much quicker than the external memory.

Flags

Used in microprocessors to show or control the outcome of an operation.

Pipelining

The connection of the different CPU elements, which allows the output of one element to become the input of the next one.

Memory Controller

A separate chip that controls the flow of data to and from the main memory.

Cache Memory (L1, L2 and L3)

A high-speed, static RAM the CPU can access much faster than the computer RAM. The L1 level is the fastest and the smallest in capacity and the one that the CPU tries to access first, while the L3 is the slowest and the biggest. Each of the elements (L1, L2, and L3) is accessed in succession by the CPUs before an attempt is made to access the RAM and the advantage of multi-level caches is that the time for accessing the memory is greatly reduced.

Measuring the speed of a processor is typically done by measuring its clock cycles, bits, and execution cores. The number of bits a CPU can process in a single instruction is important because a higher bit CPU can work with larger numbers and compute smaller numbers faster. Even though the 64-bit computers have been around since the early 1970s, they have only recently entered the PC arena. Another important factor of a CPU is its clock rate, which is measured in hertz. Clock rate should be used to compare only processors of the same type, and is not the only component that determines the processor’s speed. When it comes to execution cores, more cores allow a microprocessor to handle greater number of applications quickly and efficiently.

There are many CPU manufacturers today, but the two that are considered leaders in this segment of the industry and are fighting a head-on battle for the consumer’s dollar are Intel and AMD. However, even after a few very successful years for AMD, their processors still hold only 12% of the global processor’s market, while Intel has managed to capture more than 80%. While the AMD processors have always been cheaper than the Intel ones and are typically more efficient, the Intel CPUs are often faster; however, since both companies manufacture various microprocessors any general comparison is probably superfluous. The fierce competition between the two computer giants (and the long court battle) has resulted in great technological developments, and in 2010, both companies have announced their six-core desktop processors.

It should be noted that the central processing unit does not work in isolation and other factors contribute greatly to the computer’s performance – if you are on the market for a new machine, take into consideration its RAM, graphic card, and hard disk as well.

The Psychology of Color – Must See for Web Designers [Infographic]

by on January 28th, 2011 8 comments

One of the most fascinating and overlooked elements web designers tend to overlook is the influence of color on their website visitors. While a color palette may look visually pleasing, is it psychologically pleasing? When you go to design your next website pay special attention to your color choices and what they actually mean. To help you out with that we have created this beautiful infographic.

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600 pixels wide version

760 pixels wide version

1000 pixels wide version